The Shield of Achilles: McCain supporters are engaged in negative campaigning?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

McCain supporters are engaged in negative campaigning?

The conventional wisdom seems to be that McCain/Palin and their supporters are running the negative campaign, and that Obama/Biden are being firm but fair. It comes out in national polls, and it comes out in conversation when I discuss politics with others.

Several times I have had to correct people on the false impression left by the media on the Republican nominees. Neither McCain or Palin have called Obama a Muslim - in fact, they have publicly corrected others who have claimed that. Neither McCain or Palin have called him a terrorist either (although they have claimed he associated with a terrorist - William Ayers). True, a lot of false charges have gone back and forth, and McCain isn't totally innocent here, but nothing he has done compares to this kind of intentional disinformation (and these all occurred just in the last few days):

The Guardian prints an article from a former Vietnamese guard at prison camp where McCain was held as a POW, who claims McCain was never tortured. They don't even seriously question his account.

Rolling Stone magazine runs a hit piece putting the worst spin possible on every facet of McCain's military career, including accusing John McCain of running and hiding in cowardice during a 1967 fire on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, which killed 134 navy personnel. They base this entire article on the word of one man (who, incidentally, supports Obama).

And based on this story, many blogs even run with the rumor that McCain started the fire himself!

And Sarah Palin? It just keeps getting better. The UK's Daily Telegraph gave us this quote about polar bears from the Alaskan governor:

"magnificent, cuddly white bears are doing just fine and don't need our protection. If the ice melts, they'll adapt to living on the land."

Only problem is, she didn't say that. The literally just made it up out of whole cloth. The Telegraph has since altered the page and removed the quote (without an explanation or apology), but you can still see the angry reactions to the fake quote in the comments section.

Meanwhile, the NYT wrote a gossip hit-piece on Cindy McCain which was so over the top with sleaze that even Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald, who hates McCain, condemned it. Meanwhile, a Times reporter even emailed the McCain's 16 year old daughter posing as a friend from facebook, in order to get dirt on her mother! A copy of that email can also be read at the above link.

This prompted Cindy's attorney, John Dowd, to make this astute remark:

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father. Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here."

In the West, shots were fired at the McCain campaign bus, while one Maryland man's home and cars were vandalized with spray paint simply for supporting McCain. In Detroit, a pizza joint offers free pizzas for McCain/Palin signs (to encourage people to steal them).

Meanwhile, Jon Stewart showed a different side of himself by going into a rage about Gov. Palin.

But we are supposed to believe it's only McCain supporters who stoop to these levels.

In many ways, Obama is far above those that claim to support him. But unlike him, I'm not going to directly blame him for the actions of his supporters. Like this disturbed woman who decided to file a lawsuit against McCain and Palin for their campaign speeches. I am not joking. Some people really are that ridiculous.